The translation of Origen’s Homilies on Ezechiel is going very well, and we are deep into fragments from catenas. These tend to make sense only if you have the biblical (=septuagint) quotation before you. The NETS text and translation is the modern standard, but of course is heavily copyrighted by Oxford University Press. I’ve been meaning to approach them for permission to use this, little as I like the idea.

But I have at this very instant had a horrible, horrible thought. I don’t think I can use NETS. Indeed I cannot use anything copyright on the English side at all, or only for portions appearing only in book form.

The end objective is to make the translation freely available online. I will never be able to do that if portions are copyright someone else!

Oh bother. I’ve literally thought of just now, so I haven’t a solution to hand. What to do? Any suggestions would be welcome. Maybe the answer is simply to translate the biblical passages ourselves in all cases.

Isn’t copyright a bother!!!

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2 Responses to “Origen problem”

Dan Jennings

Hi Roger, I have been doing some extensive research with the Septuagint lately. Have you considered using Brenton or Thomson’s versions? They are both out of copyright and online. Thee’s and thou’s could be easily updated to give it a more modern feel. Thomson’s would probably be best if you were going to use one of these. You could always compare them with the NETS to see if there were any major differences between the two.